Oklahoma did just drop 62 points on the Tigers in the Big 12 Championship Game.  This is actually a far less awkward scenario than it has been in years past, when undefeated teams were left out entirely.

That being said, college football is about dollars far more than "fairness" - so the entrenched interests will have to be shown that a playoff system is more lucrative in financial terms than the existing system.

He had it backwards; Paul won the match and got in.

Paul Mastriano beat Jimmy McCarthy in the finals.

I GOT ME... A MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAN DECK.

Millennium does not hold Vintage tournaments anymore.

3 of, because you want to draw one basically every game and the second one really is a blank.  I doubt it will go to 2 without 4 Brainstorms because you'll still want to draw one ASAP.

He had an average game or an average-plus game (87.6 passer rating is a little better than league average).  That being said, he was absolutely monumental when he had to be.  He doesn't have to be stellar, but he was good enough.  Namath wasn't much better in Super Bowl III, and he's lauded as a hero even though Snell basically won them that game.

Brady on the other hand had an average-minus game at best, with much less support.  That was the difference.

He had three good drives.  The first one was a clinic in how to grind time off the clock and convert first-downs.  The second one was a very good catch-and-run against Harrison who started to look his age like every other Patriots defender not named Adalius Thomas and then a couple of very solid passes from Manning in the red zone.  The third one was the epic.

He certainly outplayed Tom Brady, who by the end of the game had a severe case of happy feet due to the pass rush.

Except...

NOT
THE
CASE.

17-14.  Plaxico Burress doesn't look like an idiot now for saying that the Patriots offense would score 'only' 17 points.  Also:

ELI MANNING.  TODAY, YOU ARE A MAN.

Giants defense 1, Patriots offense <1.  Brady's going to get himself killed if his offensive line can't block Tuck and Strahan.

Now if the Giants offense remembers to not punt the game away, then this is doable.

I'm at 20 days, 5 hours.  Most of that is from when I was a first-generation moderator though, so I bet I haven't logged twenty-four hours in the last year or so.

The line on the game is 13 at present, which I simply don't see.  7, sure.  10?  Entirely possible.  13?  That's basically saying 'Okay Giants, you are terrible.  Die thanks.', which isn't borne out by the 38-35 season finale.

That Atog-o-Lantern needed a picture of Rich Shay on it.

Their LB corps IS aging.  Parker ran all over the Patriots - it just didn't matter because the vaunted Steelers defense gave up 34 points and a boatload of yards.  Addai also had a field day with the Patriots defense.  It's possible to actually run the ball on that team, and their CBs aren't as good as people think.

That being said, you do have to do a lot of work to keep up with that offense.  The only team balanced enough in the AFC to play with them is Indianapolis, and if they meet in the AFC Championship game (which I honestly expect) then it will be another really close game.  Indy simply isn't afraid of New England anymore.  Sure, New England won, but that game was THE game of the year.  And I'm willing to bet that the rematch will be just as good.

Seeing as how the 'greatest team ever' would have to contend with the following competitors:

1972 Dolphins - 14-0 regular season, Super Bowl win.  Most powerful offense (two 1000 yard running backs and Morrall combined with Griese for the most efficient passing attack in the league) mated to the most powerful defense in the league, as well as Yepremian to kick from 50 and in in a dead ball era. 

1948 Browns - 14-0 regular season, AAFC championship win.  Paul Brown's best team, they simply destroyed the competition aligned against them in a league that assimilated into the NFL in 1950.

1962 Packers - 13-1 regular season, NFL championship win.  Lombardi's best team; their only loss was to an 11-3 Detroit squad that repeatedly challenged the Packers during the Lombardi era.  They were #1 in scoring and #1 in defensive scoring - they gave up 10.6 points a game and scored 29.6.

1985 Bears - 15-1 regular season, Super Bowl win.  The last great Monsters of the Midway team, second in scoring only to the last Air Coryell San Diego team that literally wouldn't play defense.  The devastation that this team wrought in the playoffs was in fact legendary - two shutouts and a 46-10 beating of the Patriots in Super Bowl XX.

Does New England compare favorably to any of those teams?  They can potentially, but they're first going to either win out or go X-1 and they're going to have to destroy people if they do the latter.

Ryan Grant would be quite sad to think that there is no Packers running game.  Back to back 100 yard games is pretty tight, and it is how the Packers actually finish off games the last six or so weeks.

As for the Patriots, it's going to be more difficult to execute in the playoffs in the Northeast if you have to make the ball travel through the air any length of distance rather than hand off to some goon who can plow forward for three yards when it's 15 degrees out and -10 wind chill.  Does anybody really think that if the weather's that inclement that it will benefit the Patriots to throw it to Welker and hope he gets there thirteen times rather than stuffing it in Maroney's gut and hoping he smashes forward twenty or twenty-five times?

If the weather's good, short passing attacks are deadly if you have the right personnel.  When the weather isn't good, you'd better be able to line up and smash people off the ball.  Most games this season they've been pretty good about running it - 31 carries for 124 yards per game, seventh in the league.  They simply won't get away with another 16 carry performance in the playoffs unless the weather's pristine.

One thing's for certain though, it's going to be increasingly difficult for the Patriots if they simply refuse to run the football.  The Eagles played extraordinarily well on defense, but it's asking a lot for the Patriots to go completely one-dimensional (notice during the year they've averaged 31 rushing attempts per game and last night they had 16).  Also their defense did not play very well when it was obvious that the Eagles were simply going to let Feeley throw all over the field - Samuel was good but when Greg Lewis gets two TDs on you then something's up.

Sure, the Patriots are by far the best team in the league, but there was a little more hope for Don Shula and his boys.

2/3 of Americans want out of Iraq, like yesterday.  Of the major party candidates, only Paul, Kucinich, and Gravel advocate such a complete withdrawal (Obama's on record for pulling out just combat troops, which leaves 50,000 logistics guys in the super-bases that we have over there, and Edwards is just now trying to pick up on this).  Of those three, only Paul has any meaningful support because of his stance against government power and dollar devaluation.

Basically, he's got a real shot of breaking up the Republican Party, and with his polling data if he actually does win the nomination he might just be able to take down Clinton (he's the only one that polls well head-to-head against her).

I mean, 29 yards?!  Special teams actually completely lost that game for the Colts, Manning's stone awful day notwithstanding.  Sproles ran wild on them and Vinatieri couldn't hit a chip shot to win the game for them.

Also, if I'm San Diego's GM, I'm calling Schottenheimer back and begging him to take his job back.

Who cares about being liked?  If you have the ability to do so, you probably should because it's certainly legal.

Absolutely it's common - by the end of Day 1 you should have a handle on who's playing what going into Day 2.  It's not even particularly hard if you have a deck that finishes rounds quickly.  What's not legal is bringing those notes specifically into a match - you can take them, even have them on your person, but you absolutely cannot reference them during a match.

You also cannot take any notes during a limited event.

Remember, if the people sitting there aren't going to throw you out you have every right to be there.  So why not find out what they're playing and what technology they are bringing to bear?

Yeah, but apparently the Rams got to protect Bulger a little bit and he reminded people why he's Very Good (tm).  The NO defense isn't really that stellar and when you're upright at the end of a play and get to throw to Torry Holt, you should have a reasonable expectation of success.

Green Bay shutting out the Vikings was actually surprising too, simply because if Peterson's healthy he's good enough to at least put the ball in field goal range.

I'm pretty sure that Pittsburgh can stop the Browns enough in two ways:

1.  Running the football to keep the Browns offense off the field.  Can the Browns stop Parker smashing them?  Even if they do, can they stop Big Ben coming over the top?  The Steelers' offense is actually pretty solid, and the Browns defense is godawful.

2.  I have confidence in the ability of the #1 defense in football (and my #1 fantasy defense, second being the Giants) to get enough stops against the Browns offense to matter.  I have no confidence the other way; more to the point, I'm pretty sure that the Steelers defense versus the Browns offense is a good matchup for the Steelers.

Castillo getting hurt had a little to do with that - that kid is a MONSTER in the center of their line.  Peterson's the best or second-best back in football (the other being opposite him in LT) this year

A lot of those penalties on the Patriots were really on the 'oh shit, you're awful' kind like the personal fouls.  New England played a very sloppy game and did to Indianapolis what had been done to them in last year's Championship Game anyways - oh look, you no longer can stay with our receivers and put pressure on the QB, good night.  Indianapolis showed a very strong ability to run the ball, and if Harrison was available (or even Gonzalez), it's entirely possible that there would've been no 21 and 29 yard field goals - those balls would be in the end zone and the game would've been out of reach when Brady went to work with 10min remaining.  I'm sure that the Colts are going to put a ton of heat on the Patriots for home field, too.

The last real option for their 'standalone' plan of running the football and playing defense (also #1 pass defense on the Colts, who knew?!) was the Super Bowl, where they simply dismantled an admittedly injured defense by pounding the ball up the middle with Addai and Rhodes.  Even with the Titans slowing the Colts ground game down, I have consistenly been impressed with their abilities.  I would not be as impressed with the Patriots simply because Addai is better and healthier than Maroney is.

Number of sacks is a big one.  Manning has the second fewest sacks in the league (Drew Brees has 4, and doesn't throw deep in that offense at all), and while Brady has 30 more pass attempts it's not like Manning takes a bunch of three-step drops with that yards/attempt and yards/completion.

The Colts running game is a lot more capable than people think it is.  The way they ground down the Jacksonville defense (with a steroid-lad in Stroud in the middle) was a sight to see.  Fifth in rushing is not something to sneeze at, and 4.4 a carry is well above league-average.

If I were the Patriots I'd be really wary of the Colts just smashing the interior of their defensive line with Addai.  The Indianapolis offensive line is the best in football and they are proven capable of running the football on anyone.  That will likely be the key to the game, as well as whether or not Indianapolis can get a stop on Brady (likely since Freeney and Mathis have enough speed to run right around any tackle in the league).  38-35, Colts.

Manning and the Colts aren't winning with flashy offensive explosions.  They're winning because they are absolutely certain that they can move the football on you and punch the ball in the end zone no matter who you are.  Their run defense is adequate to good with Bob Sanders in the lineup and their pass defense is very stout.

The key matchup will be whether or not the ground game of the Colts can keep crashing over for five yards a pop at will against any opposition.  If Indianapolis can run the football, stopping them is harder than stopping the Patriots' offense.  Yes, I know that the Patriots have put up 40 points a game.  It's mostly predicated on people wanting to double Moss and then losing to Welker in the slot and Stallworth on the other side, but Indianapolis has the personnel and speed to not immediately die to Welker (and also if Morris and Maroney are still out it's not like they have to worry about a credible ground game).

Case Western Reserve's Engineering schools are all outstanding, but living on the East Side of Cleveland might not be your cup of tea.

Here's the prime seasons of Bradshaw's career (between 1972 and 1979):

1972: 11-3, loss in AFC Championship Game, 147/308/1887/12/12 passing, 58/347/7 rushing (!)
1973: 10-4, loss in AFC Divisional Game, 89/180/1183/10/15 passing, 34/145/3 rushing (10 games)
1974: 10-3-1, won Super Bowl, 67/148/785/7/8 passing, 34/224/2 rushing (8 games)
1975: 12-2, won Super Bowl, 165/289/2055/18/9 passing, 35/210/3 rushing, Pro Bowl
1976: 10-4, loss in AFC Championship Game, 92/192/1177/10/9 passing, 31/219/3 rushing (10 games)
1977: 9-5, loss in AFC Divisional Game, 162/314/2523/18/19 passing, 31/171/3 rushing
1978: 14-2, won Super Bowl, 207/368/2915/28/20 passing, 32/93/1 rushing, Pro Bowl
1979: 12-4, won Super Bowl, 259/472/3724/26/25 passing, 21/83/0 rushing, Pro Bowl

No quarterback with that winning pedigree would be kept out of the Hall of Fame, especially when he was a true dual threat and was one of the three or four best quarterbacks throughout that entire era.